Russian opposition blogger and anti-corruption activist Alexei Navalny faces a new 20-year sentence for extremism on August 4.

In a long blog post commenting on the trial, he asked his supporters not to lament his fate but to take a moment to think about why such an excessive sentence was being handed down for terrorism, that “has no crimes and no victims.” He says that the “Stalinistic” formula is aimed not at him, but the whole population.

“They imprison hundreds to intimidate millions,” Navalny wrote.

The compete blog post is reproduced below.

The verdict will be read out in a day, and I would like to say a couple of things before it is heard. To put the numbers in context, so to speak.

The term will be long; what is called "Stalinist". The formula for calculating it is simple: what the prosecutor asked for, minus 10-15%. They asked for 20, they give 18 or something like that. It does not matter much, because the terrorism case is already in full swing. You can throw another 10 years there.

So here's my number one request. When the figure is heard, please do not show solidarity with me with lamentations and exclamations: "Like under Stalin." Better show solidarity with me and other political prisoners by thinking for a minute. Think about why such an exponentially huge period is needed. Its main purpose is to intimidate. You, not me. I will even say this: personally to you, who is reading these lines.

You noticed that the propaganda about this process is silent. They don't talk about it on TV. Because history will have an ambiguous effect on the “ordinary Russian”. Eighteen years for some kind of "extremism" without victims and consequences will seem obviously unfair to him, and he will secretly begin to sympathise. And you already know everything. You need to be stunned, intimidated. By the severity of the sentence, the thoughts of opposition are knocked out of my head.

Please think and understand that by jailing hundreds, Putin is trying to intimidate millions. We live in a country where tens of millions of people right now are opposed to corruption, war and lawlessness. Right now, tens of millions are for fair elections, democracy, change of power and they want Putin to leave. We know for sure that if every tenth of those who are outraged by the corruption of Putin and his officials took to the streets, then power would fall tomorrow. We know for sure that those who were dissatisfied with the war, having gone out into the streets, would have stopped it immediately.

But these are all empty dreams. That doesn't work. Someone has to be first, and they are afraid to be. Russia is no exception here. It's just that the dissatisfied do not take to the streets of countries with dictatorial regimes almost until the very end of these regimes: neither here, nor in the USSR, nor in Iran, nor in Cuba, nor in the GDR. All changes are achieved by 10% of citizens – the most active. That is you. Repressing (prison, punish, fine) even 10% of them – that's one and a half million people – is now impossible either politically or organisationally. So, it is necessary to stun and intimidate, deprive the desire to do at least something.

Such Putin's (and any, in general, dictator's) strategy works. One example. The main invulnerability of our organisation has always been that we could not be cut off by money: we are financed by tens, hundreds of thousands of people in small payments. You won't override. But by inflating cases of financing extremism (one of the charges on which I will be sentenced tomorrow), the authorities have ensured that from within Russia, and this is 95% of our donors, it has become "dumb" to support. And finances are the basis of activity; without them, nowhere. The intimidation worked great. I remind you, by the way, that here is an instruction on how to support us anonymously and securely through cryptocurrency.

To be honest, we still often help Putin's strategy of intimidation ourselves, throwing heart-grabbing tantrums over each arrest, further frightening both ourselves and those around us. We must talk about everyone, we must not forget about anyone, but at the same time we must be firmly aware that power in Russia has been usurped, illegally seized. Those in power cannot keep it without arresting the innocent. They imprison hundreds to intimidate millions.

This must be dealt with coolly. Putin should not achieve his goal. And I really want that in terms of the sentence to me, he also did not reach it. Therefore my request number two: when the verdict is announced, please think of only one, really important thought – what else can I personally do to resist? To prevent the scoundrels and thieves who have settled in the Kremlin from eating my country and my future? What can I do after weighing all the risks and taking into account all the circumstances?

The third request is the most important. Answering this question for yourself, please do not dare to say: “Nothing.” You can. Something everyone can do. Talk to neighbours, hang a flyer. Distribute our investigation. Send 500 rubles a month to us or other opposition organisations and media. Keep a blog. Participate in DMP-2, write on social networks. Support political prisoners. Draw graffiti. Go to the rally.

There is no shame in choosing the safest way to counter. It's embarrassing to do nothing. It's a shame to let yourself be intimidated. Whatever sentence they have planned, it will not achieve its goal if you understand what it is for and answer: “I am not afraid” – a daily cold-blooded, albeit small, but contribution to the struggle for freedom in Russia.

Thanks:

1. Thank you all, of course. Everything that happens to me is much easier to bear, because I feel your support every day and every minute.

2. Many thanks to the common sense side of the legal madness called "trial in prison" that ends tomorrow. To my lawyers Olga Mikhailova, Vadim Kobzev, Alexander Fedulov and Dani Kholodny's lawyer Svetlana Davydova. They fight like lions.

3. To defence witnesses: Stupin, Kara-Murza, Roizman, Chanysheva, Ostanin, Gorinov, Yashin, Muratov, Demchuk, Golikov, Nikolaenko, Popov, Moroz.

4. Special thanks. My main personal inspiration in this process is my accomplice Danya Kholodny, a 25-year-old guy who accidentally fell into this meat grinder.